April 28, 2004

It’s almost May. Is Maine out of winter yet? We hope so, because we are heading North this week. We always enjoy our month-long stays in Milledgeville, GA each spring and fall, but now it is getting HOT and that tells us it is time to go home.

Macon, Georgia- home to the world’s biggest Indoor Pickleball facility- 32 courts! We went down with a few friends and played until we couldn’t play any more.

Georgia State Botanical Gardens- a treasure! They even had a tropical greenhouse with vanilla beans and cacao growing!

The botanical garden had a wonderful Children’s Garden Area. The super-sized acorn is tough on the squirrels, but the giant slugs are downright scary! The bronze sculptures were very sweet. We met several school groups on our visit- one group in particular just couldn’t wait to tell us about the turtle and where we should look for it!

January, 2024

Life on the quiet side, warmer and no snow compared to Maine.

We have now realized that we have slide down from a Bucket List to a Tin Can List, as we have apparently lowered our standards of the attractions we visit. We have been told by many RVers that BUC-EE’S is a place worth going out of your way for. Fortunately, for us, it was along our route. SO, we just had to stop and check it out.

BUC-EES is a travel stop for anything except Semi- Trucks! The one we stopped at had 100 (yup ONE hundred) gas pumps! The store is the size of Grocery Store and sells almost everything you could possibly need on the road and lots of stuff you don’t need but might buy anyway, just ’cause you can! They are Famous for their immaculate and classy rest rooms- and they are just this side of elegant. They are re-known for their pulled pork sandwiches. We had coffee and scones- very good. Been there, done that, don’t need to go back, didn’t get the t-shirt 🙂

Lockerly Arboretum in Milledgeville had Nights of Lights for the Holidays. It was a lovely, warm evening to stroll through the grounds.

We visited a HUGE Aviation Museum at Robins Air Force Base, GA. Huge is actually an understatement. We were there ALL day. Many great volunteers, Veterans, that had indepth information about the planes in each building.

Christmas in our new RV Park- Water’s Edge RV- more like march-edge, but it is very quiet, only 18 sites! We see lovely sun rises from here. Fireworks in town were at 10pm. We went early and listened to a really good rock cover band and then turned and watched the fireworks over the lighthouse.

October 31, 2023

Every time we say we’re not going to post much to our blog, we see some beautiful areas and just have to post photos. Some day this will be our memory lane. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our photos and stories.

We visited the Botanical Gardens at Wake-Forest University. It was part of the RJ Reynolds estate…interesting history of course. We played pickleball with a man who worked for RJR all his life and learned a lot about the story from him.

Stone Mountain in North Carolina. That rock is HUGE! We just had to hike the trail around it. 800ft. elevation climb in less than a mile, much of it stairs. The views were awesome. The “easy” way down was the long way around, of course. 5 miles, which doesn’t sound like much, only we’re are not quite in the shape we used to be. Somewhere about 300 steps up and then a nice trail most of the way down, then another 300 or so steps down along waterfalls and finally to the view back up the rock face. PHEW! It seemed worth it, until the next day when our bones were complaining. There was a nice reward on the way home- there is a general store and hand dips really good ice cream! YAY!

Lake Hartwell, SC and GA. The lake is down 7ft or more, dropping daily. This area has been in moderate drought conditions for a couple of years. The lake is so low, as you can see from the left pic, the water should be at least 2 ft. over my head. It allowed us to walk out to some islands that are not islands right now.

September 2023

What summer? This has to be about the rainiest, foggiest and cloudiest summer ever!

And now that summer is almost over, I have realized I haven’t even posted things we did back in the spring before we got back to Maine. So, here goes:

Waterfalls are always worth the hike! Visited a few more caverns- for two people that need sunshine, not sure why we feel compelled to go down in every cave we get near…

Once we got back to Maine and settled into the house, which still feels rather odd, we had solar panels put on our southerly facing garage roof. Monitoring them has become our new pastime-come on sunshine, we need the KWHs!

We spent two week in PEI- lovely and quiet, great beaches, except one day when we went to a vintage pinball arcade and played to our hearts content- some of the pinball machines were mechanical, not electronic! What a BLAST! And a visit to the Bottle House, which is several buildings made out of old bottles- Crazy Cool! And lovely gardens surrounding it all.

Spent a week Downeast- mussels, scallops, lobster and our favorite CRABMEAT! Headed out to hike to burn off the great seafood.

April 2023

The last photos of Port St. Joe….for this year:

Before we left Port St. Joe, FL, we met up with Derek for 2 days. He was doing some work in Venice, FL. We met about halfway between in a sport fishing town- Steinhatchee.

We were in Milledgeville, Georgia for the month of April, living life in the slow lane. Pickleball, walking in a nearby Arboretum, attending music events around town at the college and local private school.

Then we stopped at Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC for a week or so. As well as good pickleball, a local botanical garden drew us back every few days:

Elkin, NC to a small campground in the woods. We play pickleball with the owner of the campground. Nice are for river walks, hiking and playing tourist. Going to try Disc Golf here…should be interesting…

Making our way slowly north, following the warm weather, spring flowers and sunshine.

We’ll be back in Searsport by the end of Maine.

Winter 2023

It was so cold…. almost everywhere in the United States before and after Christmas. And we saw it coming here to the Panhandle of Florida, but…. we now have “southern blood” so we were COLD, REALLY COLD! It went down to 21 degrees on Friday night, 26 on Saturday and 24 on Sunday night!!

The days were only getting to 35 or 40 AND it was windy. So, what did we do? First thing, was to remind ourselves it was warmer here than any place north of us, especially Maine. We had winds of over 40mph, but our home in Searsport Maine had winds over 70 mph- blew a bit of siding, trim and one roof panel off. Hurricane force winds will do that. Here, in FL, we filled our RV water tank, checked the propane levels, made sure the batteries and solar were in working order and hunkered down. Many of the houses on stilts down here have exposed piping (well, it isn’t supposed to be so cold down here for so long), so many of our pickleball friends were madly insulating and draining, and still had mishaps. 40+ unoccupied rental houses had pipes burst and that made the water pressure drop everywhere! Which is why we always have water in our RV tank!

We had a very close encounter with a hawk one day:

Sunsets are looking good- so here are some pics:

And a moonset

Low tide here goes a LONG way out. Of course, it is only 1-2 ft. deep for a long way out!

And some miscellaneous wildlife:

Dec. 18, 2022

Next stop, Milledgeville, Georgia. We have found a nice, friendly, small town that has great Pickleball. And a small RV park with large sites and low prices. Looks like this will be a month stop each year as we “boomerang” back and forth between Port St. Joe FL and Searsport, Maine.

Lockerly Arboretum was full of fall color and flowers blooming.

Milledgeville was the state capital for a few years before Atlanta stole it away. The governer’s mansion was decorated for Christmas to the max, based on historical detail, although the huge Christmas Tree in the rotunda was larger than the era would have dictated.

Port St. Joe does up Christmas in a big way! Farm, Food and Craft Market. Garden Club gift and food sale. All I can say about that is YUMMY! And the biggest, little Christmas parade ever. Of course, it is shorts and t-shirt weather, so easy to enjoy these activities. The parade lasts over an hour!

Merry Christmas from the VERY COLD south! It WAS warm, and then it got cold….really cold for several days.

November 5, 2022

Making our way south again. Following the foliage as it changes.

Colonial Williamsburg for a week. We stopped here in the spring about 3+ years ago and thought it was worth another visit. Trade shops demonstrate and discuss their trade all day long. Of course, that is right up our alley. Blacksmith, silversmith, brick making, joinery, wheelwright, gunsmith, as well as musket firing. At each place, because it is a bit of the off season, we were able to have interesting conversations with the masters and apprentices. At Colonial Williamsburg, people actually apprentice the old fashioned way- 7 years to learn the trade, demonstrating proficiency along the way. Many tradespeople have been there for years and decades.

Back to Jamestown as well. There is the National Park where the Glassworks are. We had broken one of the glasses we purchased before, so replaced that one and bought a few more for the house with no wheels (Searsport). Watched glass making for a time, too. And there is a private “museum” with incredible films, displays and replicas of the three ships that came to Jamestown.

Yorktown- neither of us remembered this history lesson. Northerners are always focused on Paul Revere and Lexington and Concord. But what ended the Revolutionary War? The Seige of Yorktown in the fall of 1781 was the last land battle. The Contintental Army forced the British to surrender after 3 weeks, 8300 soldiers. The Treat of Paris was signed in the fall of 1783.

Elkin, NC is a small town much like our towns in Maine. We play pickleball with a great group, even stay at a campground owned by one of the players. Nice walking trails, friendly people and a few good restaurants.

Then bouncing around the boudaries between South Carolina and Geogia. Lake Hartwell and Lake Greenwood- good pickleball, friendly people and for the most part quiet. Have to make a stop at our favorite Pecan store in Ninety Six, SC.

Hartwell has a very nice, small botanical garden- and flowers were in bloom! Gardenias, especially. A real treat! Lots of flower photos below!

We have had a few too many visitors though, at one campground….a couple thousand, or maybe a million. Tiny, tiny ANTS! After a rainstorm, an ant colony was washed out and they decided to move in with us…any which way they could. Two feet of the entry steps, 6 ground jacks, 4 tires, a power cord and a water hose. No matter which way we treated- soapy water works quite well- they found another path. We found the original colony, or at least one of them, and treated it with ant spray. Also treated anything touching the ground. And they all went for higher ground- up, up and up towards the ceiling; who knows why. Every time we thought we had them under control…

Tallulah Gorge- 310 stair steps down, plus flatforms to a suspension bridge over the gorge, THEN, of course, 310 stair steps back up- and the up is always harder, but it was worth it. Although by the looks of some trekkers, they were not having a good time! This gorge is 1000 ft. deep and has 6 sets of water falls. A 1.5 mile hike, which is 3 miles round trip, takes you to several overlooks and back again.

September 2022

Doesn’t everyone say, “where’s summer gone?” And so we are as well.

Since we knew our new home did not come with wheels on it, we had planned, last winter, to take a couple weeks to RV Downeast this summer. As nice as our home is, being on the move always brings a sigh of relief and an odd sense of comfort to us both!

We scrolled through photos we’ve taken since the spring and realized we’ve barely posted to our blog. So here goes- photos from caverns in Virginia, hiking, nature, Downeast….

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Luray and Endless Caverns….only we can’t remember which pics are which cavern…oh well.

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July, 14, 2022

Well, who knew, that five years ago when we moved into the Eagle Cap slide-in truck camper in Warren, waiting for the closing on Clare’s house, that we would move into a stick built, attached to the ground, with no wheels home on the very same day, June 25.

So, here we are, 5 years later, sitting in our new home in Searsport, Maine. And we love our house, and our land, and our view.

Not to worry though, wanderlust and itchy feet will keep us on the road for 8 months of the year for, hopefully, many more years to come.